Microsoft investigated the leak by rummaging through a French blogger's Hotmail account.

Earlier this week, a man accused of stealing trade secrets from Microsoft and handing them to a French blogger was sentenced to three months in jail and a $100 fine in the Western District of Washington.

Further Reading

"We should not conduct a search... unless the circumstances would justify a court order."

Alex Kibkalo worked for Microsoft in the company's Russia and Lebanon offices. According to an FBI complaint filed earlier this year, Kibkalo leaked pre-release updates for Windows RT and a Microsoft-internal Activation Server SDK to a French blogger in retaliation for a poor performance review. The blogger allegedly asked a third party to verify the stolen SDK, but that third party, who connected with the blogger via Hotmail, alerted Microsoft of the theft instead.

At that point, Microsoft launched its own internal investigation and searched the Hotmail account to find the blogger and his source. The company's investigation team was soon able to trace back to Kibkalo and then discovered that he had created a virtual machine on Microsoft's corporate network from which he uploaded the stolen goods to SkyDrive. When confronted, Kibkalo admitted to handing over software, company memos, and other documents. He was fired and later arrested.

The debacle created a significant PR problem for Microsoft, however. Privacy advocates were concerned that Microsoft took it upon itself to rummage through the blogger's Hotmail account, rather than alert law enforcement and seek a warrant through that channel. However, at the time, the company's terms of service allowed it to access users' Hotmail accounts if it thought its rights and property were threatened, so legally the company was absolved.

Still, just a week after the story broke, Microsoft reformed its terms of service to indicate that it would seek out law enforcement before accessing private account information during internal investigations.

As for Kibkalo, the Seattle Timespublished a hand-written letter that he sent to the judge, stating “At some moment I was making a wrong decision to discuss certain company projects with external party. As of now, I deeply regret, that I have shared that information... For sure, I was given good lessons, which I deserved.”